Detecting corporate media bias often requires us to
discern omissions. For example, consider how the recent pet food recall was
reported.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Kimi Yoshino penned an
article ("Recall of pet food alarms owners") on March 19, 2007, that was
widely syndicated. In the piece (which was consistent with almost all
corporate media accounts), readers learned what brands were in question, how
many animals had been affected, and (of course) that the company's stock has
plummeted. Yoshino also interviewed a handful of pet owners (sic), including
Victoria Levy, who declared: "That's so disturbing. When they put food on
the shelves, you trust that it's safe."

When they put food on the shelves, you trust that it's
safe. This is where the concept of "omissions" kicks in because what the
Los
Angeles Times and its ilk opted to ignore is this: As tragic as the animal
deaths caused by the tainted "food" are, a small number of contaminated cans
is not really the issue when it comes to pet food. In an industry dominated
by multinationals like Nestlé, Heinz, Colgate-Palmolive, and Procter &
Gamble, repulsiveness should come as no surprise.

"What most consumers don't know is that the pet food
industry is an extension of the human food and agriculture industries,"
explains the Animal Protection Institute. "Pet food provides a market for
slaughterhouse offal, grains considered 'unfit for human consumption,' and
similar waste products to be turned into profit. This waste includes
intestines, udders, esophagi, and possibly diseased and cancerous animal
parts."

If you question the motives an animal "protection" group,
here's what the Pet Food Institute (the trade association of pet food
manufacturers) has to say:

"The growth of the pet food industry not only provided pet
owners with better foods for their pets, but also created profitable
additional markets for American farm products and for the byproducts of the
meat packing, poultry, and other food industries which prepare food for
human consumption."

In a particularly ugly twist, euthanized pets are often
themselves boiled and used to make cosmetics, fertilizer, gelatin,
pharmaceuticals, and yes, pet food (with traces of sodium pentobarbital for
added flavor).

"When you read pet-food labels and it says meat or bone meal, that's what it
is: cooked and converted animals, including some dogs and cats," explains
Eileen Layne of the California Veterinary Medical Association. One more
time...and this time with feeling: "When they put food on the shelves, you
trust that it's safe."